I Reach Right Up to the Sun
One of my favourite moments of Saturday’s performances was ‘discovering’ the choir standing silently in the woods – particularly in the second show. The dusk accentuated the luminous quality of everyones’ white shirts against the dark of the trees. Then the beginning of Barren Estate – the incantation of this plant-spell reverberating amongst the tree trunks. Another moment was standing with the quintet in the hollow listening to ‘In summer autumn’ fading as the choir left the woods.
When I checked my Pacer pedometer app on my phone for Saturday alone it told me I had walked (or run in some moments) 35,000 steps, which is apparently 16.5 miles. It certainly felt like it – but made very much worth it by comments made post-show by audience members who, of course, saw and heard things in the landscape that we, as performers, didn’t see or hear: the three white deer photobombing us as we walked back to the house after our ‘exit’; the perfect flying-V geese making their lazy way across the sunset in ‘Rationalists’, the on-cue tawny owl hooting along with ‘In Beau-ooo-ooo-ty’ or the pair of buzzards circling high above the house in ‘These Are the Things We Have Lost’. Coincidence is one of the delights of the outdoor site-responsive work we do.
More great choir singing moments – ‘ La Clé des Champs’ sounded great – it’s difficult harmonically (sorry!) but we really pulled it off. ‘Significant Landscapes VI’ (‘Rationalists’) round the Richard Long ‘Full Moon’ slate circle was really well sung. The version of ‘In Beauty’ in the colonnades could have been really tricky for tuning and timing but again it worked excellently ‘in living stereo’.
Many thanks to all in the choir who put in such supreme efforts to get to Houghton Hall and also for learning the music and blocking of the show. Many thanks to Alex Lingford, our brilliant production manager. And of course much gratitude to the Cholmondeley family for letting us use the house and gardens of the amazing Houghton Hall.
